The present invention relates to an apparatus for the manufacture of plastic parts from thermoplastic, thermoset and/or elastomer material by injection molding or reaction injection molding. The apparatus includes a multi-station locking unit of horizontal or vertical configuration designed to hold a number of molds and an associated injection unit for the simultaneous injection of the molds. The apparatus further includes two outer mold clamping plates, one of which is arranged on guide elements and movable thereon in the locking direction, and a center mold-holding part movably arranged on guide elements between the two mold clamping plates. The mold-holding part is provided with a heatable melt conduction system with sprue nozzles and has one half of a mold attached to each of its two sides. The center mold-holding part is designed as a mold clamping plate sectioned crosswise relative to the locking direction for holding larger halves of a mold. The two parts of the sectioned mold clamping plate are kept together by a high-speed clamping device and have the melt conduction system arranged therebetween. Separate driving cylinders are fastened on the center mold clamping plate.
The injection molding machine described above is disclosed in my earlier filed application U.S. Ser. No. 865,197, the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference, and permits an extremely economical manufacture of larger parts, in particular automobile body parts made of plastic by injection molding or reaction injection molding. By releasing the high-speed clamping device, the two parts of the center, section mold clamping plate can be displaced sideways with one half of the mold attached to each part, thereby completely exposing the melt conduction system and making the latter accessible on both sides.
The simultaneous injection of two identical molds is possible by means of the center, sectioned mold clamping plate.
The object of the present invention is to enhance the sectioned, center mold clamping plate so that a single mold can be injected or two molds of different shapes can be simultaneously injected.